KI Complete Revised Edition IN DAILY LIFE KOICHI TOHEI KI NO KENKYUKAI H.Q.KI Complete Revised Edition IN DAILY LIFE KOICHI TOHEI GUY A.A. DO E-MAIL wOORESSe BUYDOU@ATTCANADA.CA CIN SMALL LETTERS) KI NO KENKYUKAI H.Q. / JAPAN PUBLICATIONS.KLIN DAILY LIFE ‘Complete Revised Edition ©2001 by Koichi Tohei All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by KI NO KENKYUKAI, H.Q., 3515 Akabane, Ichikai-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi, 321-3426 Japan. First printing: February 2001 Second printing: July 2001 Distributors: United States: Kodansha America, Inc. through Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd., 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8. United Kingdom and Europe: Premier Book Marketing Lid., Clarendon House, 52, Commarket Street, Oxford OX! 3HJ, United Kingdom. ‘Australia and New Zealand: Bookwise International Pty Ltd., 174 Cormack Road, Wingfield, South Australia 5013, Australia. Asia and Japan: Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd., 1-2-1 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0064 Japan. ISBN 4-88996-071-6 Printed in JapanPREFACE With the advance of culture and civilization the structure of our world grows more diverse and complex. The lives of primitive peoples were simple, their area of communications was small, and all they really had to think about was a place to live, something to eat, something to wear, and some- thing with which to arm themselves against powerful enemies. Now, when man covers the face of the earth and is thinking of flying to the moon, ideas, politics, economics, and employment grow alarmingly diverse and complicated. Driven by waves of complexity, we seem to have been cast out of a quiet pond onto the swirling waves of the great sea itself. At the mercy of wind and waves, we need make only one mistake and we are cast adrift like a boat without oars facing the imminent disaster of sinking. The universal has given us a fine boat and strong oars to navigate the violent waves, but if we lose them, we must open our eyes, recognize our own strength, look toward our goal, and, cleaving the billowing waves, gra- dually rebuild ourselves to the point at which we can sail the tempestuous sea. Few people in this world know what their real strength is. Many see only the part of their power that floats like the visible segment of an iceberg and forget the vastly greater part sunk beneath the surface of the water. Perhaps such people are satisfied with themselves as they are; perhaps, on the contrary, they are pessimistic about their own inabilities. Certainly a man who inherited a fortune from his parents, locked the money in a safe, forgot the key,and making no attempt to use his own re- sources, complained of no money and borrowed from other people would be a source of ridicule. Surely he should find that key and make free use of the fortune that he owns. Because it explains the basic principles and usages of ki, which are utterly essential to the revealing of man’s innate power, ki is the key to the safe. A grasp of the principles of ki makes it possible for you to call on the ki of the universal and to use the power that you have always possessed. I have organized the Ki Society and spread Tohei style Ki Development and Aikido with Mind and Body Coordinated based on the Principles of Ki which I grasped through my life-long training. Lives filled with laughing and lives filled with weeping are both possible. It is for the man himself to decide which he will choose. If you would be al- ways healthy andvalways walk through life with your head held high, you must begin by studying the uses of ki.Lam very happy that people all over the world have read the explanations of Ki Principles and Aikido with Mind & Body Coordinated as I set them forth in my “Book of Ki”. The present work is my attempt to fill requests 1 have received from other countries to explain ki more thoroughly and to offer applications of the training methods and the principles of ki to daily life. Nothing could make me happier than for this book to satisfy those requests and to serve as material for my readers’ further study. Koichi ToheiKI IN DAILY LIFE CONTENTS Preface PART ONE: THE PRINCIPLES OF K/ Chapter 1 ween AUARG TA ee eee eee ae THE VALUE OF OUR EXISTENCE . UNIFICATION OF MIND AND BODY . THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF K/ THE FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO UNIFY MIND AND BODY .. . 97 1. Mind Moves Body . . . Example 1 Two Fingertips Naturally Joined. Example 2. The Unbreakable Circle Example 3 The Unbendable Arm ... Example 4 The Human Bridge 2. Keep One Point Example 1 Pushing the Left Shoulder Example 2 Keeping the Spot in the Forehead and the One Point in the Lower Abdomen Aligned ....... 38 Example 3 Concentrating on the One Point in the Lower Abdomen Only ... Example 4 Forgetting the One Point in the Lower Abdomen and Concentrating on the Forehead Example 5 Sitting in Living Calmness Example 6 Sitting in Dead Calmness. 3. Relax Completely Example] Both Hands Pulled Down Example 2 Relaxation with and without One Point 4. Keep Weight Underside... . Example 1 The Heavy Arm. Example 2. The Unraisable Face Example 3 The Weight in the Lowest Part of the Arm 5. Extend Ki COORDINATION OF MIND AND BODY IN DAILY LIFE. Example 1 The Unbendable Arm Example 2. The Opponent Pushes You Back by the Wrist. Example 3 Standing on One Leg........--.+eeeee eee eensKI IN DAILY LIFE, Contents (Cont'd) 10 12 13. 14 15 16 17 18 Example 4. Standing with Both Hands Raised . . Example 5 Stooping Example 6 Bending Backward. Example 7 A Leaning on B Example 8 Rowing Exercise . Example 9 Being Pushed from Behind . Example 10 Swinging the Arms Example 11 Changing Directions . KI BREATHING METHODS 1 Ki Breathing Method I, 2 Ki Breathing Method Il . 3 The Breathing Method that Transcends Breathing . THE DIVINE SPIRIT... : THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AND PROTECTION FOR ALL THINGS... 74 PART TWO: WAY OF LIFE ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES OF K/ GETTING UP SLEEPING .. THE SUBCONSCIOUS . . THE SIMPLE WAY... EATING . OUR FACES,OUR EYES, AND THE WAY WE SPEAK. THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-DISSENSION. THE UNITY OF CALM AND ACTION RULES FOR DISCIPLINANTS ... 1 Be Candid 2 Persevere 3 Differences in Techniques and Teaching Methods 4 Be Both Pupil and Instructor. RULES FOR INSTRUCTORS .. Growing Together . An Instructor Must be Modest. . Pupils are the Teacher's Mirror . Right not Might...........05 Attitude Not Seniority Makes an Instructor . Be Fair and Impartial Seas Instructors Must Work Together ........ 0.000020 cece eee waurhun=CONCLUSION oe Appendix: Thirteen Rules for Disciplinants .PART ONE The Principles of KiChapter 1 Human Life When we get ready to put out to sea in a boat we first check a number of things. Is there any damage to the rudder? Is the engine in good condition? Are there any leaks? Only when we are sure that all is well do we feel a sense of security and cast off for a safe voyage. Human life is much the same, When we are born we set sail on the rough waters of the world of man. While we are children our parents or those around us care for and protect us. We live in safety relying on others, but when we reach adulthood all of the responsibility becomes our own. We become our own ship’s captain and must independently sail by ourselves. Though others may give us words of helpful advice or may assist us, the responsibility of the voyage is ours, and we must know completely the ability and strength of the ship we are sailing. We must also be able to check all the parts ourselves to see if there is any trouble. A look at the young men and women of today reveals a situation packed with troubles. What is more, these young people do not realize the situation they are in. Their brakes won’t hold, they are hurling along in an impossible direction, and the engine has run wild. They themselves are either sick or spiritually on the verge of collapse. They have lost their oars, the ship is leaking, their strength is gone, and they are in grave danger of sinking in the roaring waves of the world of man. Why do we not here and now reaffirm our own abilities and re-examine all of our parts? Let us bring forth our innate power, put ourselves in order, and make something splendid of the ship in which we must sail the seas of our lives. Let us stop and think. What, after all, is human life and where did it come from? Most people when asked where they came from when they were born reply that they came from their parents. Those parents had parents too, and if we continue back we see that our life flows in a continuous line from the creation of man. If we ask where life came from before the creation of man we have no answer but that it came from the universal. If this is so, our own lives too proceed from the universal. If someone asks what were you before you became the adult you are now, you would usually answer, “I was a child.” Before you were a child? An infant. Before that? An em- bryo. But suppose we were to ask what you were before you were an embryo. What would you answer? HUMAN LIFE 13Before you were an embryo you were the union of an ovum from your mother and a sperm cell from your father. Where did they come from? When your parents were children they were incapable of producing ova and sperm cells. They only became able to do so after they reached adulthood. Was this ability a part of the air they breathed or the food they ate while growing up? We can only answer no. It did not come from any place, it came of nature. In other words, our life is born through our parents of the univer- sal. This line of thought leads us to the conclusion that not just humans, but every tree, every blade of grass, all stones, water, and air are born of the universal. Moreover, they have continued to exist since the beginning of the universal and are a part of the universal. When a man is elated everything looks rosy, there are no doubts, life is easy. Life, however, is not all ups, there are downs too. Indeed, if there is elation, depression must follow. When these times of depression come, one feels lonely. He feels that he is cut off from the universal, isolated from society, alone and discouraged. If we think of ourselves as single individuals, in contrast with the great universal we seem as tiny as a poppy seed. Our powerlessness and isolation are lamentable. But if we keep in our hearts the knowledge that we are one with the universal, that everything in the universe is of the one womb, what need have we to wail or be lonely? From this knowledge should come the mighty faith that we are one with the universal, that the universe will protect us, that there is no need to despond and no need to be perplexed. Though ten thousand misunderstand and slander us, if we make full use of our own strength and hold to the right belief, the universal will know. There will be nothing to fear. A certain man made an irreparable business error, and hoping for death climbed to the top of a mountain. When he got there and looked down at the vast panorama spread before him he felt a strange emotion coursing through his body. The story goes that he came down from the mountain and through strenuous effort made a great success of his life. Doubtless with death just ahead, the man’s soul cleared. He saw the whole of the universe spread before him. His real self awakened and rediscovered itself as a part of the universal. Great strength then gushed forth from that universal. Man today has his eyes trained only on the society of man. This is par- ticularly true of city dwellers who almost everyday see nothing but man- made things. They have forgotten the universal world of nature. Turning one’s eyes to the universal and enjoying it is not the exclusive priviledge of poets and artists. The universal will unfold itself before anyone who desires it. Those lost in the waves must turn their gaze to the universal and redis- cover themselves as one with it. 14 HUMAN LIFEChapter 2 The Value of Our Existence Our lives are a part of the life of the universal. If we understand that our life came from the universal and that we have come to exist in this world we must then ask ourselves why the universal gave us life. In Japanese we use the phrase suisei-mushi, which means to be born drunk and to die while still dreaming, to describe the state of being born without understanding the meaning of it and to die still not understanding. To be born like a bubble and to spend our lives doing no more than repeating the process of eating, evacuating, and sleeping is indeed to lead a meaningless existence. To die still dreaming is fine, but for those who do so the time of death brings great distress. Among today’s young people some spit out remarks like, “I didn’t ask to be born! My parents did it themselves; it’s no responsibility of mine, but now that I am born I can do just exactly as I please!” Some young people actually follow this dictate, and their parents do not know what to say to their children in answer. The fact is the parents do not bring about a birth just as they like. Each of us receives our life from the universal only through our parents. Some parents want children very badly and cannot have them, whereas others do not want them and do have them. It is not up to the parent. If it were, parents would doubtless choose to have children who would never say unfilial things or do things that are bad. Let us borrow some knowledge from the field of medicine. In a single emission the male ejects approximately from one to three hundred million sperm cells. The number of sperm cells a male produces in a lifetime is astronomical. An individual is the result of the union of only one sperm cell with an ovum, Because one person is born from one sperm cell countless other sperm cells are sacrificed. Surely punishment should follow such waste. We often hear the words “a chosen life” applied to people who are more talented or better looking than others or who lead a more brilliant life. In fact, we should realize that all of us, from the moment we are born, enter a chosen life. From the moment we are born of the universal we fall into a chosen life because we were not mistakenly born a pig or a dog and because from the countless sperm cells of one human male one single individual was born. To waste this rare and precious life is a regrettable thing indeed. When we THE VALUE OF OUR EXISTENCE 15receive the priceless gift of life we also receive a commission to achieve something in this world. In other words, we must know the will of provi- dence, we must know our own calling. The heavens say not a word but act at all times. The heavens say not a word, but all creation is constantly growing. The universal will not teach us a single word, but acts in silence. We do not know whether the direction is good or bad. It isa fact only that the universal is moving. If with eyes set on the building of a brilliant paradise we also want to lead an equally brilliant life on earth, we must believe that the universal is moving in a good direc- tion. If on the other hand, we chose to follow the path of evil whatever efforts we make, all is wasted. The universal is always growing and develop- ing, We must realize that the mission entrusted to us from the universal is to apply our efforts to this development and creation. In this world are rich and poor and a great variety of kinds of work. But from the viewpoint of making efforts in the universal formation of all creation everyone is equal. There is no rich and poor, no high and low. Whatever your field of endeavor, what- ever way you are headed, if you devote all your strength to that thing which is suited to you something will tell you, “This is in keeping with my real character.” When you feel that you must accomplish something in a given field, you have found your calling. Apply all of your strength to that one thing, and you will sense the value of your work and the value of your own life. There is no calling when you make no effort, but the universal creative progress increases and increases as each individual carries out his own calling. Caste aside the pessimism that holds that regardless of how much one individual may try, the great forces of the world do not change. If only one person becomes a better man, the universal is at least better by that one per- son. One little light can light ten thousand, which can become the power that illuminates the world. To create a better world we must start with ourselves. 16 THE VALUE OF OUR EXISTENCEChapter 3 Unification of Mind and Body Once we know the substance of our lives and grasp the nature of our call- ings our next inevitable concern is finding a way to fulfill that calling. We received our life from the universal in two elements, the mind and the body. We can express the relationship between these two by saying that the body moves in accordance with the dictates of the mind and that the mind expresses itself through the body. The two are inseparable. The continuation of human life is impossible with only one of the two, but when they join together we are able to manifest our highest abilities and our innate powers. When I was in college, I heard the story of an old Zen priest who, while still young, began practicing Zen. He was a very weak man with a serious case of tuberculosis. Of course, now advanced medicines and remedies have found cures for tuberculosis, but in those days it was considered inevitably fatal. During his Zen training, the young man collapsed. The doctors pro- nounced him beyond help, and he, in deep distress, resigned himself to death. He thought to himself then, “It is a great sorrow that I had to fall ill in the midst of my training, particularly since I had made up my mind to follow Zen, but if I must die, I shall do it bravely seated in the Zen position as a priest should.” He got up from his sickbed, assumed the seated Zen posi- tion, entered a state of perfect spiritual concentration, and calmly sat await- ing death. But he did not die. On the following day he got up, resumed his Zen position, and waited, but again death did not come. Day in, day out, he lived seated in the position of meditation. Because he disciplined himself with death constantly before his eyes, in a twinkling his mental attitude had advanced. The priest then decided that since he had waited for death, yet death failed to come, he would cast the question of life and death from his mind and leave it up to the will of heaven. He also resolved that while he lived he would follow the disciplines of Zen to the best of his ability. As he continued his Zen studies, while he was unaware of it, his tuberculosis went away, and as a famous priest he lived a rich life of leading and teaching others until beyond the age of 70. While resigned to his death and seated in thought he achieved a state of union between mind and body and overcame his grave illness. Those who would copy him and practice seated Zen meditation in an attempt to cure a serious illness should be aware that rather than always cure, such a proce- UNIFICATION OF MIND AND BODY 17dure can be very dangerous. The likelihood is that an illness will get worse if a person approaches Zen seated meditation from the insecure attitude that, “Well, I started seated Zen because I heard that if you did it you will get well, but I wonder if that is really true.” It is essential to understand that when one unifies his mind and his body his innate life powers begin to operate and that it is the life powers that actually overcome an illness. Though we do not have time here to list the people whose stomach ulcers have disappeared, whose blood pressure has lowered, or whose hearts have grown stronger becuase they practiced in the Ki Society, do not jump to the conclusion that simply engaging in practice is a panacea. A desultory haphazard participation in practice is not the best way to cure a disease. You must understand that we can only overcome an illness if we learn the rules of mind and body unification and if we manifest the ultimate in our life power by practicing so that all physical motion is correctly one. The same thing applies to ability. When we say we are good at the things we like, we mean that we are able to make progress if we like the kind of thing we are doing. Conversely, if we do not like what we are doing, we find it difficult to concentrate our mind on it. Though our body may be pointed the right way, our mind will fly off in some other direction. Progress in things we do not like is slow because we cannot achieve a state of mind and body unification. The critical thing to learn if you want to make progress in anything is to first unify your mind and your body and then give play to the highest of your own abilities. The things that one can do when he is sincere and when his mind and body are one are astonishing. The cornered rat has been known to turn on the cat and down him. People often display powers in time of fire that they would never dream of in ordinary life. Women have been known to lift auto- mobiles to drag injured children out from under them. In desperate situa- tions of life or death people come up with unheard of wisdom. All of these cases involve manifestations of power made possible by the unification of mind and body. Man receives innate powers from the universal but cannot use them be- cause he does not know how. Only if you learn the rules of mind and body unification, train to be able to use your innate human powers at any time, and temper yourself, can you fulfill your heaven-sent calling. How do we go about unifying our mind and body? Before we unify our mind and body, given from the universal, it is neces- sary to clarify the universe itself- the ki principles of the universal. I first teach the ki principles (SHIN-SHIN TOITSU-DO) in the Ki Society and then teach Aikido with Mind & Body Coordinated as the application of them. Originally aikido means the way to harmony with ki- ki of the universal. However, people generally think mistakingly that aikido means the way to harmony with ki of others. That is why they fail to understand the essence of it and forget the principles of ki and the principles of mind and body 18 UNIFICATION OF MIND AND BODYcoordination. In order to avoid confusion I named it Aikido with Mind & Body Coordi- nated (SHIN-SHIN-TOITSU AIKIDO) though the meaning is repeated. Strictly speaking there is no aikido without ki principles. Now what are the principles of ki? UNIFICATION OF MIND AND BODY 19Chapter 4, The Basic Principles of Ki Though from ancient times in the Orient, the word ki has been in wide use for a wide number of things from the Ki of the universal to everyday things around us, many people who use the word do not realize to what extent everyday ki is connected with the ki of the universal, or even that the two are connected at all. 1. THE BASIC NATURE OF KI As our five senses tell us, the universal in which we live at present has color and form. But what is the real nature of this universal? Anything that has form must have a beginning. For example the sun is said to be blazing now, but there must have been a beginning to the fire. There must also have been a fire, before the fire started. If we trace the origins of all things, we reach a point at which nothing existed. On the other hand, nothing cannot give birth to something. Zen uses a term mu which means nothingness, but not a complete nothingness; that is, the Zen mu means a state in which, though nothing exists, there is still something. Mathematically speaking, the basic entity of mathematics is the number one. The earth is one. A pebble is one. If it is reduced to half, what remains is also one. If it is reduced by half infinitely, it does not become zero. If there is one, half of it always exists. Ki is the infinite gathering of infinitely small particles. In this way the sun, the stars, the earth, plants, animals, and human mind and body are all born of the ki of the universal. From ki, the real substance of the universal, came movement and calm, joining and breaking apart, tensing and slackening, and many mutual actions which gave the present universal its form. Ki has no beginning and no end; its absolute value neither increases nor decreases. We are one with the universal, and our lives are part of the life of the universal. Since before the beginning of the universal, and even now, its absolute value exists as a solid fact within which birth and growth and death and dissolution continue to take place. The Christian Church calls the universal essence God and its action God’s Providence. In other words, God exists in this world and God's Providence is a never-ending process. In Ki Society, we make a distinction between the ki we use everyday and the universal ki—the real essence of the universal. We call the working of 20 THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KIthe universal the rules of the universal. Our lives were born of ki, to which they must someday return. Seen with the eyes of the body our lives seem to disappear at death, but from the view- point of the spirit, nothing disappears at all. We have existed before and will continue to exist in the hereafter. Looking at something with the eyes of the spirit means viewing it from the viewpoint of its real essence. From the viewpoint of the real essence of the universal, all of us, the whole world, all humanity, are of the same womb with all trees, all grass, everything even the clouds and the mists. Can a reason exist then for fighting or hatred? You will first be able to understand the spirit of loving and protecting all things and the injunction against fighting if you look at the question from the viewpoint of the basic essence of the universal. Our lives are like the amount of water we might take from the great sea and hold in our hands. We call this “I.” Yes, it is the same as calling the water our water because we hold it in our hands, On the other hand, from the standpoint of the water, it is a part of the great sea. Although if we open our hands the water will fall back to the sea, even as it remains in our hands it is in conflux with the outer great sea. If we refuse to let the water flow with its own, it will go stale. Our lives are a part of the universal ki enclosed in the flesh of our bodies. Though we say that this is “I,” viewed with the eyes of the mind, it is actual- ly the ki of the universal. Even though that ki is encased in flesh, it is in conflux with and active as a part of the universal. When we breathe. we breathe the ki of the universal in with our entire body. When the conflux of our ki and that of the universal is unimpaired, we are in good health and are lively. When the flow is dulled we become listless, and when it stops, we die. In the training of ki we always practise sending forth ki, because when we do so, the ki of the universal can enter our bodies and improve the conflux between the two. If we stop the flow of ki, new ki cannot enter, and the flow becomes poor. For this reason, practice emphasizing the sending forth of ki aims not only at improvement in the martial techniques, but also at facilitating the conflux of our ki with that of the universal. This is an extre- mely wholesome way to make the maximum of one’s life power. For centuries the Japanese have said that to die is as to go home, but without firm convictions it is impossible to assume this attitude. We are one with the ki of the universal, and to die is only to return to the ki of the universal. We should use all of our power while we are alive and all of our power after death. This indestructible faith is essential to success. 2, PLUS K/ AND MINUS KI For the basic essence of the universal, that is ki, to achieve the present state of the universal, it had to pass through a number of contradictory pro- cesses. These processes continue today and will do so long into the future. In the Orient, this dualism is called the theory of yin and yang. Yin indicates THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KI 21the shade and yang the sunlight. Where sunlight is present, shade, of neces- sity, is also; where there is life, there must be death, where high, low, and where strength, weakness. The universal is absolute in its oneness, but its manifestation is a world of dualism. The famous inventor of electric devices, Thomas A. Edison, claimed that the universal was made of electricity and that it evolved from the contrast of plus and minus factors. Sunlight and birth are plus, and shade and destruc- tion are minus. Pouring forth ki is a plus process, drawing it in is minus. Our Ki is a part of that of the universal, and our bodies are the vessels used to protect our ki. The mind is that thing, given by the universal, with which we must protect and bring up the fleshly vessel and with which we must prompt and control the exchange of our own ki with that of the universal. Perhaps we could make a comparison between the processes in- volved in the generation of electricity and those in the flow of ki. In the generator, the basic essence of electricity becomes electricity and flows out to activate countless types of machines. The universal is filled with ki, which our brains, something like electrical generators, use to give birth to mind, which in turn becomes our own Ki, the ki that moves our bodies. If one’s mind is unsound, he will be unable to protect the health of his body or to exchange his own ki with that of the universal. The man who would polish his techniques must first polish his mind. If the beginning is unclean, so will be the ending. An improper heart leads only to total empti- ness, These expressions all indicate that the ki of the universal is available for good or bad uses. If a plus Ki exists, so must a minus ki. The individual must choose which he will use. If he would walk in the sun and lead a life of activity, he must develop plus ki. He must make a plus use of his mind and adopt a positive attitude. If he wants to walk in the shade and be gloomy, he must make a minus use of his mind. The attitude we will select is up to us. Though everyone wants to lead a happy active life, the people who always use their minds negatively may as well not even hope for a plus life. A posi- tive life depends on a positive attitude. Begin by forging plus ki, and you will succeed. If it suddenly gets cold and you think to yourself, “It’s easy to catch cold in this kind of weather,” in a flash your ki becomes minus, and you will in- deed catch a cold. A person who thinks, “What's a cold? They don’t bother me,” will get rid of a cold as quick as he catches one. If you approach a job with the attitude that, “Well I don’t think this will go too well,” it will not go well. On the other hand, if you use all your strength and belief it will go well. Many people set out with the idea of a’ positive approach, but a negative one comes boiling up and defeats them. In the training of ki we are always training ourselves to extend our ki to make it easier to maintain a positive attitude. If sometimes we fall into a negative state and someone tells us, “Come on, remember to extend your ki,” we get the idea immediately and can switch over to plus ki. 22 THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KIIn my home village, yearly during the first three days of the New Years, I gather Ki Society members, who are willing, together and we go to a nearby river to train. The temperature outside may be eight or nine degrees below zero centigrade, and the water flowing down from the snow covered moun- tains is cuttingly cold. If you put your finger into it you feel as if your flesh will freeze. When the sun begins to rise in the east, all of us strip to our bathing suits, do some light calisthenics, and follow the leader into the water to a depth about up to the hips. We form a circle around the leader and when he gives the command “down,” we stoop till the water comes to our shoulders. The leader then commands, “yell!” Every one yells with all their might. After about three minutes we all rise. Sometimes we repeat this pro- cess two or three times until the leader says, “get out,” and everyone goes to the shore. After this we all dry our bodies, put on our training clothes, and practice breathing methods. This is the way we begin a year’s training, Sometimes some of the members worry and ask if they will catch cold. I always reply, “If you want to catch cold, catch one. If you don’t, don’t.” Of course if no one who went into the river caught cold, there also would be no sick people. The important thing is to maintain the one point which I explain later and extend your ki. ‘Once a man who did not practice Tohei style Ki Development asked that he be permitted to participate in this discipline. Though my custom is to refuse in cases like this, the man was so persistent that I decided to teach him how to maintain the one point in the lower abdomen and the theory of extending ki. So I said he might join us. While he was in the water he con- centrated completely on doing as I had told him, and everything went well. When he came out of the water, however, he became overconfident and lost the one point. When this happened he began to shake like a leaf. All of the other students, standing around at complete ease without so much as goose skin, laughed at this one trembling man. I immediately made him recover the one point in the lower abdomen so that his trembling stopped. A person who constantly trains himself will not lose the one point, though he himself js not conscious of maintaining it. This is not just an exercise in the ability to withstand cold. First, it is a test using your own body to see how powerful a state it is in when you maintain the one point in the lower abdomen and keep your ki extending. Secondly, it is done at the very opening of a new year so that all through that year we can be filled with ki and in a plus condition. In the third place, through entering the water we wash away all of the bad thoughts and ex- periences of the preceding year and start afresh, like a reborn baby. This entry into the river also helps develop a strong positive attitude that wards off colds throughout the year. When it gets cold, we simply think how we went into the icy river in the winter. Now, with all of our clothes on, a little cold weather should not bother us. Even if we do catch cold, this positive attitude will help us get rid of it fast. Both a plus and a minus thinking method apply to practically everything. For instance, a person might see a few of his friends talking together. The THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KI 23person with a plus attitude will think nothing of it. The person with a minus attitude will immediately wonder if perhaps they are not saying something bad about him. By thinking more than is necessary about such things this negative person’s attitude will become more and more negative. Some people put a bad interpretation and some a good one on the very same words.More- over, the same words sound different to the same person depending on whether his i is plus or minus when he hears them. If your friend calls you a damn fool and you are in a plus frame of mind, you will take it in your stride because you know the man is your friend. If he calls you names when you are in a minus frame of mind you are likely to suspect unduly that his friendship is only feigned and that he really thinks you are the names he calls you. Remember, plus attracts plus and minus attracts minus. If you are in a minus frame of mind, you will think minus, do minus, and change everything around you to minus. Because minus calls minus, if one thing goes bad, everything will look bad. If you fight with your wife when you leave the house in the morning, the whole day will go wrong. Let one ill-tempered person come into a group of four or five who are happily chatting together, and everyone will go silent and gloomy because that one person’s minus is powerful enough to change everything around him to minus. If one member of a potentially happy family is minus, the whole family will be too. On the contrary, if your ki is plus, your thoughts, deeds, and everything around you will be plus also. Happiness comes in through a laughing gate, because plus calls plus. A person with a strongly plus nature enlivens a group of four or five people talking. Because his powerful plus is able to change his surroundings to plus. A brave general has no cowardly soldiers because his powerful plus infuses his men with courage. On the other hand, a cowardly general will infect even his brave men with the same disease. If we are inter- ested in making the whole world and all of society brighter, not just our- selves alone, we must individually develop our own plus attributes and with them attempt to change everything around us to plus. A salesman going out on his rounds does ill to decide beforehand that he is not going to sell anything at a certain place. He does not know whether he will sell or not, but by adopting a minus attitude that he will not , he trans- fers that minus to his prospective customers. He must have a sufficiently plus approach to make his buyers react positively. If even then he does not make a sale, he can content himself by just saying that he did not sell any- thing that time. If he renews his positive approach and goes on to his next prospect, he will get results. A sick person is usually minus. A minus person tends to go to another minus person and says something like, “Are you also sick? I am suffering from this kind of illness. It is hard to be sick, isn’t it?” In this way he be- comes more minus. The more minus he is, the more plus he should seek from a strong healthy person. Most people in a hospital are minus. Even a healthy person tends to be- come minus without knowing it if he stays in such a circumstance for a long 24 THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KItime. The minus effect is even stronger for sick people, When their illness gets a little worse, they think with a minus ki that they might die due to this. Or if someone in the neighbouring room dies, they feel like they are also dying. Under these circumstances one must try to extend plus ki. Life and death are providential. When one dies, one must die and as long as one lives, one must live. As long as one is alive, one never dies, Think only of living as long as you are alive. All you have to do is keep one point and facilitate the conflux of your ki with that of the universal through extending your own ki. Naturally the life power which is originally yours will be activated, A visitor to a sick person who says something like, “Mr. So-and-so died of this disease, you know. You be careful,” does about as much good as some- one who tugs on the legs of a man hanging by the neck. The really kind thing to say when you visit a sick acquaintance is something like, “This is not enough to get you down. Cheer up.” When the man above you on the job or your teacher has to reprimand you, you take it in either a minus or a plus way, You should realize that you are being corrected because you did something wrong. If you take it with a good will and resolve not to repeat the mistake, the cause for the scolding will vanish. Later even if the teacher or the higher official scolds you, you can use your plus ki and take the scolding as you should. You should not be spiritually moved; there is no need to become cast down. The man who is scolding you will see how well you are taking it, and without his even knowing it his ki will become plus. He will lose all desire to be angry, and when he might find cause to reprimand you ten times, he will make do with only two or three. If, on the other hand, you are hostile and resentful when someone re- proves you, if you snivel and look as if you are about to burst into tears, your minus attitude will transfer to the man scolding, who will become angrier than ever and scold you more than he should or wants to. If someone corrects you for something that you did not do, it is his mistake not yours. Do not let it upset you. You yourself will be able to understand whether the situation demands that you speak your opinion or simply listen in silence and let the thing pass. If you decide to resolve the situation by listening in silence, you will need very firm plus ki, Whatever you do, when you are scolded keep your own ki positive, and do not give in to the other man. Because we always practice extending ki in the Ki Society the training hall is always filled with plus ki. Someone who is not well or is actually too sick to engage in practice can change his own ki from minus to plus by just coming to the training hall and watching and receiving part of the abundant supply of positive ki. Anyone who is not actually engaged in the training program and whose ki becomes minus finds that it is extremely difficult to change back to plus, but he can change it back if he has the help of the positive ki of a large number of people. When you are finished with a day’s work and are going home tired, stop THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KI 25by the training hall and practice for a while. Your whole body will relax, your ki will become plus, and you will feel good again. When you go home you will sleep soundly and awaken on the following day with a positive atti- tude toward your work. On the other hand, if you just go home complain- ing of your exhaustion, even sleep will not help you recover. You will wake up the next morning still tired. When something unpleasant happens, instead of taking it home with us, we should stop by the training hall and change our ki back to plus ki. The home should always be a pleasant and bright place. People who live too far from a training hall to practice there should practice maintaining the one point in the lower abdomen on their own and should make a definite effort to keep their ki in a plus condition. When things are going well, anyone can easily keep himself positive, but we have to discipline ourselves to change negative to positive when con- ditions are adverse. Since plus calls plus, a positive disposition can lead to a plus fate. Our ki is in conflux with the ki of the universal. If we pour forth as much ki as possible we can improve this interchange. We can pour forth all the ki we like because the supply is inexhaustible. Once we have made our ki posi- tive we should not be satisfied to stop. Whether we make something brilliant or something miserable of our lives depends on whether we select the posi- tive or the negative way. Hand in hand, all of us together must make of this priceless gift of life, received from the universal, something brilliant. If one by one we light our individual lights we can illuminate the whole world. 26 THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF KIThe Four Basic Principles to Chapter 3 | Unity Mind and Body 1 KEEP ONE POINT 2. RELAX COMPLETELY 3. KEEP WEIGHT UNDERSIDE 4 EXTEND KI Both the mind and body were born of the ki of the universal and were originally one. There is no dividing line between the mind and body in deter- mining that this is the mind and that is the body. The mind is refined body, the body unrefined mind. The mind is refined and the body is coarse. It is not really difficult to coordinate mind and body which were origi- nally one. It seems so because people insist on thinking of the mind and the body as separate entities. Those who preach mind preach only mind, and those who preach body preach only body. Though born of the same mother, our hair and skin naturally function according to different rules. Similarly, even though the mind and the body were both born of the same ki of the universal, the mind naturally has the rule of mind, and the body, the rule of body. When both rules move together like the wheels of a car, for the first time we can truly coordinate mind and body in our daily life. 1. MIND MOVES BODY We are not really conscious of using either our mind or our body, but exactly what connection exists between the two? Even if we grasp the importance of unity between mind and body, if we do not understand the relationship between them we cannot effect a unity. If when we are sitting quietly, not even thinking about our body, we manage to unify our mind, the mind and body both enter a state of unity. The reason, however, that the unity fails when we move about is that we do not understand the relation- ship between mind and body and are mistaken in the way we use them. The mind is formless, colorless, and odorless, and flies from place to place at will. We may think it is here right now only to find that instantaneously it has flown a thousand miles ahead. On the contrary, the body has shape, color, and odor and its movements are restricted. Keeping these two dis- parate elements constantly unified is very difficult. We realize that we must FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO UNIFY MIND AND BODY 27make one the center of our efforts and unify it, but this leads us to the pro- blem of which to make the center. Of course, it is impossible to separate the mind and the body, but functionally speaking we can ask ourselves is it the mind that moves the body or the body that moves the mind? Discipline methods will alter greatly depending on one’s interpretation of this point. First let us examine the view point that the body moves the mind. Can anyone bind a person to the point where the mind is immobile? Of course not. When the body is confined, the mind moves all the more. A doctor’s telling a patient that he must remain absolutely still only causes the patient’s mind to become all the more agitated. As anyone who has practiced seated Zen mediation knows, when you sit quietly with a composed spirit you are at first troubled by a multitude of things that come floating into your head. In a word, we remember things as trivial as the three measures of rice we lent a neighbor three years ago. Fixing the mind in one place by confining the body is impossible. There are probably people with the opinion that the body dominates the mind since when the body is in poor condition the spirit is gloomy and when the body is in good shape the spirit too is bright. Naturally since the mind and the body are related the body influences the mind, but this alone does not entitle us to say that the body controls the mind. People have encount- ered great happiness, gotten healthier, and recovered from an illness, but they have also, with a perfectly fit body encountered extreme worry and age overnight. In essence, if the body controls the mind, the mind must grow old as the body grows old, and when the body falls into bad condition, the mind must always be weak and unable to rally. The outside world influences human beings, but the outside world is always changing and unstable. The body is influenced and controlled by the changing outside world. If the body controls the mind, far from spiritual and bodily unity, we have instability. Frequently hypnotists tell their subjects, “You are now unable to rise from your chair,” and the subject really cannot stand because the hypnotist has planted in his mind the notion that he is unable to. This is the result of the powerful application the hypnotist makes of the subject’s subconscious in making him think he cannot rise. People often say that only the stupid and the mad cannot be hypnotized, because they cannot understand what the hypnotist says and do not think as he would have them think. The same is true of someone who is perverse. Even if there is no hypnotist around, try the same thing yourself. Sit in achair.” Think to yourself, “I cannot get up from this chair,” and try to stand. Probably you cannot. Try also putting your hands in your lap and saying to yourself that you cannot lift them. If you try, you will find that you really cannot lift them. Within your mind, without your being conscious of it, your mind is working to the end that you cannot lift your hands, and you cannot lift them. This is proof that the mind controls the body. A doctor who says that the patient must lie absolutely still or the illness will get worse is only contributing to the patient's spiritual agitation. If he 28 FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES TO UNIFY MIND AND BODY